EXCLUSIVE. Engin Firat: "Kenyan football is 40 years behind, but it has enormous potential"

Exclusive interview with Kenya national football team head coach Engin Firat

What’s in the interview?

• Why did Firat decide to take charge of Kenya’s national team?
• Kenya hasn't played a home game in three years. When will the team return to playing at home?
• Kenya will host the 2025 African Nations Championship (CHAN) and the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). Is the country ready for this challenge?
• Why is Kenya competing in the qualification for CHAN 2025 if it’s already hosting the tournament?
• Turkish coach Engin Firat shares his thoughts on José Mourinho’s move to the Turkish Süper Lig.

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Football is widely regarded as the number one sport worldwide, including across the African continent. However, this is not the case in Kenya, where the country's top stars are involved in athletics, having brought home 30 Olympic gold medals throughout history. Names like Beatrice Chebet, Faith Kipyegon, and Asbel Kiprop are well-known to many.

Kenya’s national football team has never enjoyed major success, but efforts are currently underway to change that.

Right now, the Kenyan national team is led by Turkish coach Engin Firat. Firat has previous experience at Fenerbahçe, Sivasspor, and the Iranian national team, and he has been named the best Turkish coach abroad three times. Despite his impressive résumé, he now finds himself coaching a team ranked outside the top 100 in the FIFA rankings. Why?

“As a coach, sometimes you choose your options based on what suits you best,” said 54-year-old Firat in an exclusive interview with Dailysports. “Like you go for the money, or you can go maybe where you feel more comfortable. Or you look for a challenge. I had been in Asia and Europe before, so for me, it was only a question of time as a challenge, also to experience Kenya. It gives me a lot of experience, both good and bad.

So why am I still here? It is because I now have a strong connection to the players and it's not about professional decisions; it's also sometimes emotional,” Firat explained.

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Many are familiar with the unique aspects of African football, but it’s entirely different to experience it from the inside. Firat has been working with Kenya's national team since 2021, and according to him, the country’s football infrastructure is about 40 years behind the rest of the world.

“It’s not good to say it’s bad, because there’s almost no infrastructure at all. Even we, as the national team, don’t have a proper training field, stadiums, or pitches. Everything is, I don't know, 40 years ago or whatever. And this is sad because on the other side you see the potential of the players. If you think about that, of course, if there are team management, team has not conditions, so how can you provide conditions for youth development? Without anything.

Kenya has enormous potential, which may never be realized due to a lack of infrastructure, youth development, and scouting beyond Nairobi. It's very difficult to find something. Even the professional clubs I think nearly 80-90% don't have a scouting.

So therefore the real potential of Kenya football is never fully in your hands. But this is not up for debate: Kenyan football has huge potential”.

The infrastructure problem in Kenya goes beyond training fields. The country doesn’t even have a CAF-certified stadium to host national team matches. As a result, for nearly three years—since November 2021—the Harambee Stars have been forced to play their home games in neutral stadiums.

“To be honest, it makes you tired,” Firat continued. “You know it's mentally and physically exhausting, because you have never felt support. You play always away against fans and the fans make pressure on referees and whatever while other teams have more training time because they play at home. You have to travel always. It's physically and mental really disturbing

When we can play at home again, I really don't know because.You know, I had so many empty promises utill now, so therefore it makes it for me. I don't believe so much anymore the promises, they are telling me that to a minimum one stadium will be ready in December, but I would never give a guarantee for it. So because of my experience now and this has of course a big impacto n the team”.

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In addition to the infrastructure challenges, there are also issues with paying salaries in Kenya. For example, the national team coach has not been paid for almost a year. Firat has reportedly even covered some administrative expenses himself.

“You have really good inside and this kind of things. I don't know how they make it, whatever and it's now already 10-11 months where I'm not paid. It's good that I was always on places where PCP, therefore I have no problem with this.

Normally, you know, everybody would go to FIFA and gives a contract here, but like I said, I had emotional connection to the players, so I want first to achieve some goals and after this i will decide what to do about it, because even as I said before, there are too many empty promises even despite. In european or US government don't give support and financial support to the federations, but here they have but still they have always financial problems”.

Despite the difficulties, CAF has selected Kenya to co-host two football tournaments in the near future, alongside Uganda and Tanzania: the African Nations Championship in early 2025 and the Africa Cup of Nations in 2027.

“For the African Nations Championship, only local players from Africa’s club will compete,” Firat explained. “So, it looks like it’s possible to host that tournament.

As for AFCON 2027, I think we will have a lot of pressure because they’ve been working on one stadium, but it’s only 30% complete at best. As for the other two stadiums, I don’t know if they can come to the level to host this tournament. As I’ve mentioned, logistics and many other things related to preparation are big problems here.

Of course, the idea is to have a very strong team by 2027 that can not only participate but compete. But, as I said, many things are out of your control.

There are many situations we have to say. You get frustrated, and the motivation even for me starts to wane with questions like, ‘How did this happen? How could we have done this?’ So it’s not easy here. I got a lot of experience with problems and finding solutions, but as a coach, you’re sometimes limited in what you can do.”

• Which teams have qualified for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations?

Unexpectedly, the organizers have decided that Kenya will participate in the qualification for the 2025 African Nations Championship, set to take place in late October this year, even though Kenya is the host nation. This is yet another example of the unique nature of African football.

“I didn’t even know when or why we were play. You know, as the host country, you don’t need to play qualifiers. As the host, we’ve already qualified. But the organizers still want us to play. The president told me, ‘No, we won’t play.’

It makes everything very difficult outside the FIFA window. Nobody needs to give players, so I don’t know.

But sometimes, the organization in Africa is really disturbing. So, we’ll try to find a way. We have a list of players, but we’ll see how we handle it. And if I talk about it, I get frustrated sometimes.

On the other side, this group of bays has had a seven-match without lose, and this team has the most away wins with Kenya in history. We’ve changed so many positive things. But there are still issues with organization and logistics. Honestly, it makes the job very difficult and frustrating.”

Nigerian players are highly valued in Europe. Victor Osimhen (€75 million) is currently one of the best strikers in the world. Victor Boniface (€45 million) is showing with his performances that he’s ready to compete at the top level. Mohamed Salah (€55 million) has already etched his name into Liverpool’s history. However, you won’t find Kenyan footballers in clubs from Europe’s top five leagues that compete for titles. According to *Transfermarkt*, not all Kenyan national team players even have market value. The most expensive are Michael Olunga from Al-Duhail (Qatar) and Joseph Okumu from Reims (France), both valued at just €9 million. The obvious question arises: Why are there so few Kenyan footballers playing in Europe?

“It’s quite simple: Kenya has never been known for football, only for athletics. So, you never see scouts or anyone else here; nobody is checking.

We’re trying to change it. We’re trying to help some young players go out of the country to Europe and the other countries. Step by step, now the focus is coming there to Kenyan football, also with the good results we had against strong teams from Europe or Asia like Asia champion [in September 2023 Kenya defeated Asian champion Qatar 2-1 in a sparring]. So, I hope in the near future we’ll see more Kenyan players in Europe and on good teams. That would help a lot. But it’s only to beginning,” the coach asserted.

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Engin Firat was born in 1970 in Istanbul. It’s hard to imagine that he doesn’t keep an eye on Turkish football, especially with titans like striker Victor Osimhen and legendary coach José Mourinho joining the Turkish league this summer and early fall.

“The value of the Turkish league and people’s perception of the Süper Lig are changing. Of course, these are two big brands, which makes the value of the Turkish league much higher. So, it’s definitely good for the league.

It will be not easy for Mourinho, because, from the outside, you don’t know the local league. Only a few teams really want to play football and open up the game and have tactical structures. Most teams are based on staying deep and avoiding open play. So, they run like crazy, and they’re aggressive. They have no tactical shame when it comes to attack. To be honest, there's talk that football is lacking a lot. But playing against kind of teams is very difficult, and this is certainly a reason why good coaches have problems in the Turkish league, and experience failure.

It won’t be easy for him. I just hope he didn’t underestimate the situation.”

Kenya’s chances of qualifying for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations are slim. In the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, the Harambee Stars are already five points behind the leader after four matches. But there’s no hint of apathy or disappointment in Engin Firat’s voice. It’s clear the coach knows where his team needs to go and how to get his players there. Hopefully, his efforts pay off. Kenya deserves to be heard on the global football stage.